More than $1 million in foundation and state grants are going to the Detroit Health Department for five new initiatives aimed at addressing health problems of Detroit children, the Department announced today.

The goal is to reduce health barriers that interfere with school attendance and learning.

"We're focusing on a number of critical outcomes that really affect children's health and keep them out of the classroom and prevent them from being able to learn and, in the future, earn," said Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, executive director of the Detroit Health Department.

A Michigan department needs to do more to follow its own regulations on bottled water inspection.

That was the message of an audit released today by the Office of the Auditor General. The report found that the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development did not always perform timely inspections of water bottles and places with water dispensing machines.

In a perfect world, all of our doctors would be really, really good at something called “motivational interviewing.”

There are a million websites and books devoted to motivational interviewing, but here’s a super-quick synopsis (that might make an expert in motivational interviewing cringe): basically, it’s an in-depth, open-ended, non-judgmental conversation about health behaviors that draws out our own thoughts about our drug use/alcoholism/weight struggles, etc.

Dementia rates are going down. That’s even though dementia risk factors like diabetes are rising. What’s behind the decline in dementia? Dr. Ken Langa, associate director of the Institute of Gerontology at the University of Michigan, says higher levels of education and better treatment of diseases that lead to dementia could have a lot to do with it.

In the days leading up to president-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, Michigan doctors and parents are speaking out against one of his biggest promises.

Trump and many Republicans in Congress are promising to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act.

Those against “Obamacare” say its premiums are too high and it doesn’t provide enough choice. But at a press conference on Monday, several Michigan doctors and patients spoke out in favor of the Act, particularly how it helps children with cancer.

New state laws take effect Tuesday that will regulate Michigan’s medical marijuana industry.

The three laws taking effect will legalize medical marijuana dispensaries, regulate growing and processing facilities and extend legal protections to registered patients who prefer to use non-smokable forms of the drug, including edibles and oils.

It’s the first major update to Michigan’s medical marijuana laws since voters approved legalizing pot for medicinal purposes in 2008.

Michigan's Legislature and the mental health community in the state are at odds over how best to provide and manage services.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services released a draft set of recommendations to the Legislature about Governor Snyder's Section 298 proposal that would effectively privatize mental health services.

“Teen smoking at 12th-grade, 10th-grade and eighth-grade is at the lowest level we’ve ever recorded in 42 years. The same with alcohol use. Same with measures of heavy alcohol use, like binge drinking or getting drunk,” says researcher Richard Meich. “So it looks like teens are moving away from drug use.”

A new study says nearly 1.7 million people in Michigan were uninsurable before the Affordable Care Act.

The Kaiser Family Foundation, a non-profit that publishes non-partisan medical information, estimates that 28% of non-elderly Michigan adults have preexisting conditions that were uninsurable before the Affordable Care Act.

Cynthia Cox, is with the Kaiser Family Foundation, said many of these people get insurance through their job.

A new report finds, despite improved access to health insurance, a large number of poor Michiganders still fall in and out of coverage.

The University of Michigan’s Center for Healthcare Research & Transformation looked at something called “churning”. Churning is when individuals pass from one health insurer to another, either by changing plans or entering and exiting Medicaid.

Marianne Udow Philips is the center’s director. She says there remains a lot of health insurance instability.

We may soon see a draft proposal for how Michigan will handle more than two billion dollars in Medicaid funding earmarked for mental health.

The Snyder administration caused an uproar earlier this year when it backed a plan to further privatize the public nonprofit mental health system by turning over $2.4 billion in state funding to Medicaid HMOs.

Mental Health groups said this would put control of the money into the hands of out-of-state, for-profit insurance companies.

Our conversation with Lisa Kane Low and Lee Roosevelt. Low is an associate professor at the University of Michigan School of Nursing. She's also president of the American College of Nurse Midwives. Roosevelt is a nurse midwife and clinical assistant professor also at the University of Michigan School of Nursing.

A new University of Michigan study is the fourth in the country to look at fear of childbirth and how that fear might affect outcomes for mother and baby. However, it is the first qualitative study and the first to include any people of color or lesbian women.

The study was conducted byLisa Kane Low, president of the American College of Nurse Midwives, andLee Roosevelt, a nurse midwife and Clinical Assistant Professor at the Michigan School of Nursing.

Whether it's baby boomers seeking help for aging joints or people seeking alternatives to surgery, the physical therapy industry is growing. And now women are turning to physical therapy for specialized help.

Bruce LaBrecque, an RN and a women's health physical therapist in Bay City with Renue Physical Therapy, joined Stateside to talk about how more and more women, young and old, are turning to physical therapy to address intimate health issues.

The state of Michigan is asking the federal government for money to expand lead abatement efforts.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services is seeking nearly $24 million to permanently remove or contain lead based paint in homes, to replace lead water fixtures, and to remove soil lead hazards.

A new report finds a majority of households in Flint say they have suffered health problems in the wake of the city’s water crisis.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services asked the federal Centers for Disease Control to conduct a Community Assessment for Public Health Emergency Response, or CASPER. Researchers visited 182 Flint households.

Take funding from the Affordable Care Act, add a $70 million state innovation model grant to the state Department of Health and Human Services, and you’re about to see an ambitious new project that can change health care delivery in Michigan.

Tuesday, Michiganders will start signing up for health insurance coverage under the next round of Obamacare.

Many will find fewer choices and more expensive policies to choose from.

Nearly 400,000 Michiganders got health insurance coverage through the Affordable Care Act’s online marketplace. But in Michigan, the next round of Obamacare is offering fewer choices and a nearly 17% increase in rates next year.